I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for making measurements of cells in a wireless communication network.
II. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such multiple-access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks.
A wireless communication network may include a number of cells that can support communication for a number of user entities. A cell can refer to a base station or the coverage area of the base station, depending on the context in which the term is used. A user entity may communicate with a serving cell and may be within or near the coverage of neighbor cells. The user entity may periodically make measurements of the serving cell and the neighbor cells in order to determine whether there is any cell better than the serving cell. This may be the case, for example, if the user entity is mobile and moves about the wireless network. If a better cell is found, as indicated by the measurement results, then the user entity may be handed over from the current serving cell to the better cell, which would then become the new serving cell.
Cell measurement is important to ensure good performance for the user entity and the wireless network. However, cell measurement consumes valuable resources (e.g., processing resources and battery power) at the user entity. There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to make measurements of cells in an efficient manner.